The Hot Spot

Since I love everything Japanese I jumped into this production after seeing the Netflix thumbnail with the spaceship hovering above Mount Fuji!

Expecting a scifi spectacle what I got was a low key women's coffee klatsch that includes an alien with some superpowers, nothing extreme mind you. Little things like being able to run really fast, lift a car out of a hole and get down volleyballs stuck in a ceiling at a school gym!

I love the environment, it's soothing and you wish you could be there with the women and have a parfait looking out the window and see snow covered mount Fuji!

The genius of this series lies in the mundane conversations that are sometimes outright hysterical. Also in some scenes the women can be heard thinking. What makes it so funny is that we all have been in the situations these women describe and are dealing with! For instance, going shopping and not remembering if you got that salad dressing last time shopping and convincing yourself you did and coming home to open the fridge and there is no dressing but you bought another pack of Tofu you already had. The characters are endearing and lovable. We get to know a little more about everyday life of a Japanese person which we realize is just about the same as what most of us experience! I had 5 episodes at my disposal and went through them in one evening. Wholeheartedly recommend this series , it's the closest I came to since Tokyo midnight diner!

I don't really have much to say so I don't know that I'll be able to write enough to reach the required minimum. That said if it kind of stayed like the way it's been the eight episodes so far I think I could watch a lot more. It's so low key but at the same time funny and in this interesting way so "on point". I also wonder if the way the dialogue has this funny charming melodious quality sounds as striking to people who speak Japanese as it does to my ear ? Okay now I'm just filling up space. I like it. I like that it just seems so kind of intimate in the way that it does to me and I hope that there will be more at least for awhile. It's been awhile since I wrote my review, maybe I've seen three or four more episodes, and even if it would probably be undesirable for the actors I just want to say that I don't want it to ever end and now when I watch new episodes I'm filled with the bittersweet awareness that with each new one the last one draws closer. "We were wearing the same jacket. So I wanted the conversation to end soon." Tarantino eat your heart out . . ..

Deadpan comedy and the juxtaposition between mundane every day life and a half alien helping out results in a wonderful storyline of human interactions. The dialogues are funny, the plot surreal and refreshing. This is not your typically alien sci-fi. No breathtaking action or saving the earth. The subject of each episode is much smaller, much more mundane, which makes it mundane and human. In particular the way in which each character reacts to the revelation there's an alien sitting at the table is brilliant. It takes a story about aliens to give us a very real and fun story about humans.

I'm hoping for a season 2.

A very interesting storyline idea about an alien living a regular life in a small town in Japan. That gets you started on the series.

In a few weeks, you realise the interesting storyline is only an "idea" you have told yourself !! You quickly realise the bunch of Director: Itaru Mizuno, Nobuyoshi Yamada, Kento Matsuda have done the very worst work ever in the history of TV series, creating the most boring program ever.

The story revolves around a half-alien man and 3 human women. All 4 living nondescript lives stuck in boring careers.

Each of the actors trying their best to convey dead pan emotions with their voices, face, body and in all other ways an actor conveys a story to the audience.

For 8 weeks now I have watched, hoping they would somehow made it better. Every week keep getting duped.

A soviet era documentary would be more refreshing.

Endo Kiyomi lives in a tiny hotel at the base of Mount Fuji. She has an ordinary life and an ordinary job with a daily routine and the same friends since she can remember. Then one day, starting with an accident, her so ordinary life starts revealing itself to actually be more extraordinary than ordinary, while remaining relatable.

It quickly became one of my favourite series.

If you like slice of life type of series, and relating to every day life and humour I hightly recommend it.

If you are learning japanese and/or like japanese culture and humour, I highly recommand it as well.

(And I can bet the person who actually said "a soviet era documentary would be more refreshing" than Hot Spot has actually never watched a soviet era documentary or the full Hot Spot serie)